By Wayne Smith
August 03, 2009
If anyone was going to succumb to hyperbole, it was always going to be Springboks coach Peter de Villiers. And sure enough, the loosest lips in world rugby rose to the occasion when he hailed Springboks captain John Smit as "the best ambassador" South Africa could have.
Funny.

Smit didn't spend 27 years in jail on Robben Island or win the Nobel Peace Prize or become the first president of a multiracial South Africa. But then, it's possible de Villiers, in the emotion of a second victory over the All Blacks in the space of a week, momentarily had his priorities out of whack.
Chances are that the man who did all those things and inspirationally wore the ultimate white man's symbol, the Springboks jersey, on the day the Springboks beat the All Blacks to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup, would have forgiven de Villiers. After all, it was one hell of a win that Smit's team scored against New Zealand in Durban - the sort of win that could cause an excitable coach to misplace his sense of perspective.
Not that the Boks played a whole lot of rugby in Durban. Again. They play a very simple game, South Africa, but they play it with terrifying efficiency. They scored only one try, and that from a scrum when the Kiwis were reduced to seven forwards after the sin-binning of Isaac Ross. Five-eighth Morne Steyn scored it, which was just a tad greedy of him because he also amassed all their other points with an awesome nine-from-10 goal-kicking display.
The Wallabies can't afford to give away penalties in Cape Town or Steyn will boot them off the park as well. Less obvious is what detergent the Wallabies can use to remove the Steyn factor.
For starters, they have to select a back three who can catch under pressure. Remember the days when wingers and fullbacks were selected because of their attacking ability? Well, forget them for the duration because that's far from their first priority in the modern game.
As with every law change, the rule preventing teams from passing the ball back into their own 22 to then be kicked into touch - a change designed to promote more running rugby - has succumbed to the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Teams might not be able to kick for touch on the full without conceding a lot of ground, but, except in exceptional circumstances, they're not game to run it either. The penalty - and it usually is a penalty - for getting caught deep in your own territory is just too severe.

The solution? The mid-field bomb or box kick.

The Boks relied on them ad nauseam in Durban, and why wouldn't they, with Joe Rokocoko, Sitiveni Sivivatu and Stephen Donald looking so shaky under the high ball?
True, they received little protection from the match officials, who allowed the Springboks to get away with all manner of off-the-ball mayhem to prevent the All Blacks catchers from dominating the landing zones, but that was a little of what goes around comes around considering the All Blacks' shenanigans in this regard against the Wallabies in Auckland.

Australia must win the aerial game if they are to have any hope at Newlands; where normally you have to first win up front, this time it all starts with the back three.

The moment has arrived to reinstate Peter Hynes, who was so secure under the high ball last season. True, it would be something of a faith-based initiative by the selectors to install Hynes on the wing - probably at Drew Mitchell's expense - because he has barely played since the start of May.
But the strength of Hynes's game is that he does the basics well, and what could be more basic than catching the ball?

Then there's the other aerial game the Wallabies must win or at very least contest - the lineouts. It's a dark day in Durban when the All Blacks concede defeat right from the start, but that's basically what they did in the lineouts on South Africa's throw.
Rather than contesting in the air, they conceded the catch and instead set themselves to repulse the subsequent rolling maul. Yet ironically, this merely allowed the Springbok forwards to align themselves for the driving maul unencumbered. Indeed, so comfortable were they with the notion that the All Blacks would do nothing to disrupt them, they actually got ahead of themselves in setting up their maul formation on one occasion and gave away a scrum - it should have been a penalty - for deliberate obstruction.
There is no doubt the rolling maul is heading the Wallabies' way at Newlands, and much will depend on whether they are capable of stopping it before it rumbles over their tryline.
But conceding the battle in the air, as the All Blacks did, will simply give the Boks more time and scope to seal off all the gaps in their juggernaut before unleashing it. Better to fight tooth and nail to steal the throw or at very least to make it ugly for South Africa and generally keep them guessing.
Similarly in the scrums, the Wallabies cannot lie down - literally.

Referee Craig Joubert might have made a couple of dodgy calls against the Australia setpiece at Eden Park, but tighthead Al Baxter at least has to do his part to take the man with the whistle out of the equation.
He must be seen to be doing what the referees want, which means getting his bind much higher. Binding as low as he did in Auckland meant his elbow was almost touching the turf from the outset and when referees start guessing about who caused a scrum collapse - which Joubert certainly seemed to be doing - the first thing they look for is whose elbow went to ground first.
Oh, and while on the subject of scrums and penalties, Luke Burgess and Will Genia should make certain they put the ball in scrupulously straight because it's clear that crooked feeds are at the top of referee hit-lists this month.
Australia are up against not just the best team in the world, but the best team in the world by some considerable margin. And arguably the best South African team ever.

Already this season, the Springboks have accounted for the British and Irish Lions and the All Blacks. They will be feeling confident coming up against the Wallabies. Indeed, knowing the South African rugby psyche, they will be feeling decidedly cocky, believing the Australians have no weapons capable of hurting them.
Realistically, Australia's only hope of victory is to keep them constantly off-balance. That means attacking the South Africa strengths every bit as ferociously as their weaknesses. Granted, not that they have too many weaknesses. Apart from a coach with a big mouth.


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-32464,00.html